Gilgamesh: The Process of an Arrogant Man Transforming into a Wise Man

Introduction: Questions Posed by humanity’s First Hero

The Sumerian ‘Epic of Gilgamesh,’ handed down since around 2,100 BCE, is the oldest literary work in human history. But why does this ancient story still resonate so deeply with us today? It is because the psychological journey of a figure named Gilgamesh precisely penetrates the core themes of ‘expansion of the ego’ and ‘fear of finitude’ that modern people experience.

In this post, we will psychoanalytically analyze how the arrogant tyrant Gilgamesh becomes a wise man who gains true wisdom through suffering.

1. Meeting the Giant Shadow, Enkidu

In the early stages of the story, Gilgamesh stays in a typical state of ‘narcissistic disorder,’ harassing his people while showing off his power. He had an expanded ego that could not feel the pain of others and only pursued its own desires.

At this time, the gods send the wild ‘Enkidu’ as a being to oppose him. Psychoanalytically, Enkidu symbolizes the ‘wildness’ and ‘unconscious shadow’ that Gilgamesh was repressing.

Struggle and Friendship: The fierce physical battle between the two shows the painful process of the ego confronting its shadow. But at the end of this fight, they become friends. This means that true ‘friendship (or internal integration)’ begins by accepting the internal shadow rather than seeing it as an external enemy.

2. Death of Enkidu: Fear of Death Brought by Loss

The event that shook Gilgamesh’s life as a whole was the death of his only companion, Enkidu. Grieving by Enkidu’s body, Gilgamesh has an existential realization for the first time: ‘I, too, will return to the earth like that someday.’

This is the first giant crisis that an expanded ego faces. The ‘fantasy of omnipotence’ is shattered, and the ego, standing before the finitude called death, feels extreme fear and embarks on a journey to find eternal life.

3. Failure of Immortality: Birth of a Wise Man Who Accepts Limits

After all kinds of ordeals, Gilgamesh meets the legendary wise man Utnapishtim. However, he fails the test to gain eternal life and even loses the plant of youth he finally obtained to a snake.

Here, a reversal occurs. Gilgamesh, returning to home Uruk in despair, looks at his city walls and realizes. Although the body dies, the achievements and wisdom left by humans are eternal.

Transformation into a Wise Man: He is no longer a child shouting “I will not die,” but an adult saying, “Death is human fate, and thus life in this moment is precious.” What psychoanalysis calls ‘giving up omnipotence’ and ‘returning to the reality principle’ has occurred.

Conclusion: For the Gilgamesh Within Us

The Epic of Gilgamesh tells us, “A hero is not one who does not die, but one who faces their own finitude and still cultivates the meaning of life.”

We also fall into arrogance (narcissism) in our respective lives, and tremble with the fear of death after losing something precious. But like Gilgamesh, when we acknowledge our limits and do our best in the place where I am standing now, we too will be able to become true wise people of the epic called our lives.

In the next post, we will analyze the fear and hope that primitive humanity had through our people’s roots, the Korean creation myth.